It's been the better part of two decades since a corkscrew and a decanter first started arguing with each other in the back of a restaurant, after hours, over whatever was left in the bottle. Ziff & Dale. Some of you might remember. Most of you won't, and that's fine too.
A few things have changed since then. The wine world, obviously — natural wine wasn't a headline back then, orange wine was still a curiosity, and nobody was asking a bot for a food pairing. The people those early characters were drawn from have gone their own ways since.